By Gina Ulysse, Ms. Magazine November 29, 2010 The events that unfolded in Haiti’s presidential elections yesterday came as no surprise. There was fraud, confusion and mayhem. It had been predicted. Voters showed up to polls and did not find their names on registration lists. In some instances, there were not enough ballots. In others, people arrived to find that polling centers were still closed at 6 a.m., the designated opening time, denying citizens their right to participate in the process. Democracy be damned! By early afternoon, 12 of the 19 candidates vying for the presidency called for an annulment of the elections, citing voter intimidation and other types of tampering on the part of President Préval’s Inite (Unity) party along with the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP). Social networks and radio stations alerted those of us in the diaspora when protesters took to the streets […]

By Gina Ulysse, Ms. Magazine Even after the aftershocks of the devastating Jan. 12 quake subsided, women’s bodies were still trembling in Haiti. The cause, according to a new report, is the systematic, persistent (and often gang) rapes that have become part of women’s daily lives in camps for internally displaced persons (IDP). The report, entitled Our Bodies Are Still Trembling–Haitian Women’s Fight Against Rape, and authored byMadre, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and others, is based on data gathered by two delegations of U.S. attorneys, community researchers and a women’s health specialist. The research was done in May and June of this year. Members of the delegation interviewed more than 50 women ranging, from five to 60 years of age, who were referred to the delegation by KOFAVIV and FAVILEK, two grassroots organizations that focus on gender-based violence. Leaders of these […]